Character build: The Supporter

[Powerfulwitch]

Hello all, and welcome to my first character build, The Supporter! I have seen many sorcerer's asking for "support build", so here you go, I made it with backstory and all :biggrin:
I hope you enjoy this build, I made much work with it and please feel free to comment and give feedback :D Anyways, lets get started...
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Backstory: Before the evil, Arlor was safe place. Everyone had fun! Warriors trained their muscles, rogues maked up and sorcerers studied the secret knowledge. Some of them studied destruction spells like lighting strikes, and they wanted to crush their enemies with magic. But The Supporter was different guy... He studied spells like heal, and everyone kept him crazy. But then, when evil goblins, necromancers, pirates, wolfs, dragons...and many other enemies attacked Arlor, there was few guys who gave some respect for him; Rogues, who wanted mana from him, other sorcerers who liked the health he gave, and warriors who loved the snare he did... Since those days, The Supporter realized that he want to support his buddies in combat, so everyone would love him. And that is what The Supporter does - Support.

Class: Well, as you might guess, its Sorcerer :D
Stat spread: As a sorcerer, you should make stat spread 0/0/1 (Might/Dexterity/Intelligence). That means: Put every stat to INT, so you will have much mana, and your spells will be more effective.
Gear: You want gear, that gives you lots of INT, and also a bit STR (INT for giving support and STR to support yourself - you will get more health, and that means more time to support your buddies in battle) Something of BRUTALITY should be good choise, because it gives much INT and a bit of health

Pet You can get any pet that gives bonus to you AND your allies. IMO Valkin is very good pet to have, because its AA (Arcane Ability) is really a support ability!
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As you can see, the stats are really supporting :)

Skills: The most important part of this build is skills. I have picked up following skills because they IMO are support skills

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Heal is the most important skill to have. Getting this skill 5/5 is needed, so it will have larger range to reach your buddies, it will rise health and mana regeneration and it will recover mana! Try to get as many players as possible to its range, so many will be happy :)

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Time shift is a supporting attack skill that you should have. You should get it 4/5 without the last uprage "freeze time". Freeze time will root the enemies instead of snaring them, and that is what we dont want eh? Also, when using this skill, try to hit as close the warrior as possible, so it helps him to collect group.

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Shield is skill that supports you. It gives extra survivality, and when you stay longer alive, your friends will too right? You should get this skill 4/5 without the 2nd uprage that knocks the enemies away when charging..Knocking away enemies will brake the group what warrior just made - and he will get mad. So dont take that uprage.

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Fireball is a skill that every mage should get. It isnt "fully support skill" but it stuns which is good. Think about a situation, where 30 mobs are approaching. You charge your fireball, mobs will get stunned for seconds and they take huge damage. Also, after the explode they will burn, and your friends will still shoot them. So this skill is great to have 5/5


So, I think thats it guys, I hope you enjoyed, please give some kind of feedback, and maybe request for my next character build! :D also note that im from Finland, there might be some typos here :P

[radagan]

Orion would be pretty good choise for support mage, panic&dmg aa and a lots of health in happines bonus to help u survive

[Powerfulwitch]

Orion would be pretty good choise for support mage, panic&dmg aa and a lots of health in happines bonus to help u survive
Yes, you are right :) Orion is also good pet, but IMO Valkin is better to THIS build :)

Note that there are also many other pets that are good to this build (such as malison, if there are many rogues in your party). But i think that Valkin is just the best pet here :)

[Caabatric]

when did mage become the support class :(

Anyways good guide, may also want to add that getting light as 5th skill would be effective against bosses.
Also personally in 2/5 in heal is more than enough(empower only)

getting the mana is useless as empower heals mana bar to full for rogues and tanks and the minuscule heal and mana you get are just terrible and should go into getting more skills for being versatile. Also if you get the heal over time and mana over time upgrades your heal attracts aggro.

[aarrgggggg]

Nice guide......

but in my opinion mages are not the support class, warriors are

[Powerfulwitch]

Nice guide......

but in my opinion mages are not the support class, warriors are

My build is 1 playstyle, that is possible to play. For example, you can make rogue to be dagger specialist, archer..or many other style too...

This is just 1 playstyle that is possible to play. As a mage you can be supporter, you can be single target destructer, you can be slowerist (uses slowing skills such as ice).... There are many different styles to play, and I wrote 1 here :)
I hope you get my point :D

[Powerfulwitch]

Also personally in 2/5 in heal is more than enough(empower only)

getting the mana is useless as empower heals mana bar to full for rogues and tanks and the minuscule heal and mana you get are just terrible and should go into getting more skills for being versatile. Also if you get the heal over time and mana over time upgrades your heal attracts aggro.

Thx for telling that, I didnt notice it.
You can get heal 2/5 if you want but IMO my personal gamestyle should have heal 5/5. :)

[Instanthumor]

There's only one way that a mage should be played and thats to deal damage and control the mob. You will be looked down upon for using heal by everyone except a noob rogue who is asking for "mana." If you're doing elites, you're expected to use potions, not heal.

Not to mention .. not getting root upgrade on Timeshift... major boot in the butt

[Powerfulwitch]

There's only one way that a mage should be played and thats to deal damage and control the mob. You will be looked down upon for using heal by everyone except a noob rogue who is asking for "mana." If you're doing elites, you're expected to use potions, not heal.

Well, this was just my idea, if you do not like it then don't :)
And the build is NOT made for elites, it is for "normal pve", for example mages who are level upping.

I wanted to make this build, because other roleplaying games (such as Skyrim) has multiple forums/blogs where ppl do these builds and other ones plays it. And I wanted to bring that to AL :D


And thank you all for your feedback!

[Powerfulwitch]

You certainly put forth a nice effort in this thread but you should change a few things. You recommend time shift without root!? That's illogical. Root is probably the most valuable upgrade in time shift.

Further, if this guide is not for elites and it is for people who are leveling up, then why would you recommend Valkin as your pet choice? Valkin is a pet that is obtained by running the last map in elite shuyal and by killing Elite Inan, which is a fairly difficult boss and map for someone inexperienced. And good luck even getting to that boss by using heal as one of your skills and not using potions.

Otherwise, I like the story and the pictures.

Root is very good to have as a skill, BUT if you have snare, and aim the clock well, you can help warrior to create a group.
Secondly, lvl 40 mage CAN do elites, and kill Inan, or you can use orion or other pets (thx Radagan for mentioning) as your support pets.
Thirdly, I Didnt say to not use potions... The heal is to heal and give mana to OTHERS, because you are a supporter. In normal pve (like tombs) only few use potions when at 80% health (in Elites you would). And if you heal them then,they do not need to use potions, which means, they dont need to waste more money for tombing :)

And thank you for the positive feedback :D

[Psycthe]

A great post. First of all Sorcs doesn't have high armor, high HP nor even dodge ( Like Warriors and Rogues have ) for those players who wants to level up but doesn't have the means to get the best equips in the market, they can play as support class and not just leech.

Instead of avoiding the mobs by staying way back, away from the party, turn off your pet and just heal or at times throw some FB for stuns and knockbacks or just PURELY heal your party.

I was with a party of 3 sorcs and we never needed pots in the tombs. Haven't gotten the chance to run elites yet since I'm saving up for a Legendary LV 41 weap so I disabled my EXP gain for the mean time til I'd be able to buy the LV41 weap.

This may sound as midiocre way of playing? But I'd prefer this than being a pack rat.

Just a thought though..

[Candylicks]

1. This build is not good for end game elites, but for leveling up it's OK.
2. Mage role is crowd control and damage dealers
3. Healing causes aggro on the mage, it's OK for leveling up at the beginning not for elite maps A dead mage is not good for the party.
4. Healing + Shield will slow down runs, you are wasting a damage spell for healing
5. Ya need root on your clock build.

Interesting though, it's smart to try different things with your class that is for sure. Just be clear that this isn't for elite maps~~

[Ratiomod]

Its more fun to play without shield, totaly survivable even in the elite maps.
I dont even know where shield is needed on normal maps? Big pulls in the km3 maybe?

[Newcomx]

My first intention when first build a Sorc is for support as other MMORPG i know, but later I know that STS not creates this game where each types of AL character to be dependant. So the best build should be dmg build, support build not bring any good to party IMO.

[Newcomx]

Its more fun to play without shield, totaly survivable even in the elite maps.
I dont even know where shield is needed on normal maps? Big pulls in the km3 maybe?

Some boss 1 hit kill, having shield with 2s invulnerability is essential for some player. Some maybe using Gale with dash forward to avoid 1 hit kill.

[Robhawk]

Dont get me wrong Powerfullwitch but this is a total beginners guide!

Shiny and Candylicks wrote the important things: Deal damage, root and dont take any aggro off the warrior!

A healing PvE-mage... omg... the good players/parties will hate you for wasting 1 skill slot! Mages heal skill is PvP-ONLY !!!

Here is my PvE mage guide:

Fireball with all upgrades, lighting with all upgrades, Clock with all upgrades and ice with all upgrades -> You are good to go and the party will love you!

health and mana -> pots

You can spec shield for harder bosses and swap out 1 of your attack skills.

[Rx8]

y'all do realize this thread is long past-due...

Heal is a NO for a mage in PvE.

[Candylicks]

Omg it is necro lol. Oops

[mmaachilles211]

I'm not terribly sure if you ever played a mage based upon this guide. And if you have and anyone has ever stuck in a pt with, don't lose them they are true friends. One upgrade for heal is good and that's the mana return. Not being able to root enemies is just...this blows my mind that this was even a suggestion. This does not support anyone. It hinders everyone, including yourself. As a mage you are the weakest character with the greatest multi target offense. You need to be explosive and attack continuously with your spells. Not sitting there singing kum biyah "supporting" people. As a mage the only time you need heal is when you are pvp ing...but we're not getting into that. Tbh the only part of this that made any sense was when you were describing your skill distribution and primary/secondary skill points for gear.

[mmaachilles211]

I'm not terribly sure if you ever played a mage based upon this guide. And if you have and anyone has ever stuck in a pt with, don't lose them they are true friends. One upgrade for heal is good and that's the mana return. Not being able to root enemies is just...this blows my mind that this was even a suggestion. This does not support anyone. It hinders everyone, including yourself. As a mage you are the weakest character with the greatest multi target offense. You need to be explosive and attack continuously with your spells. Not sitting there singing kum biyah "supporting" people. As a mage the only time you need heal is when you are pvp ing...but we're not getting into that. Tbh the only part of this that made any sense was when you were describing your skill distribution and primary/secondary skill points for gear.